Play EXTRA Regular Season Games
in San Francisco FOR FREE!!!

WHO: You and your entire team in Dream League (San Francisco only — see below for Oakland!)

WHAT: “Free” regular season games on 5/31 and/or 6/7

WHERE: ISA High School gym

WHEN: You pick any one OR MORE of the following…

Play on 5/31*: Pay your $55/slot x 2 roster slots by Wed 5/27

Play on 6/7*: Pay your $55/slot x 2 roster slots by 5/31 or, if this is Game #2, $55 x 3

NOTE: Regular season officially starts on 6/14 with no byes in between (except for President’s Day — see CALENDAR). This offer is only good if you play every official regular season week between 6/14 and 7/26, inclusive — 7/5 *might* a league-wide bye for July 4th Weekend.

* – Subject to opponent and gym availability (the assumption is, there’s other teams to play against and enough leftover gym time)

WHY: To gain more chemistry for your team, more games, more stats, more comp, more fun! It’s a no brainer if your team is organized and you got your act together!!!

HOW MUCH: THE GYM FEES ARE ON US!!!**

** – Just bring the regular $35 cash game fee — that’s $25 to ref, $10 to scorekeeper — and MAKE SURE YOU’VE PAID THE MINIMUM TWO (2) ROSTER SLOTS ($55 EACH) TO START, THEN ONE (1) EXTRA PER GAME AFTER THAT.

HOW DO WE GET STARTED?: Simply pay for your team’s minimum two roster slots at least seven (7) days in advance, then register, and we’ll schedule you asap! For example, if you want to play this extra/free game on Sun 6/7, pay your roster two (2) roster slots no later than Sun 5/31 at 11:59PM.

HURRY!!! GYM SPACE IS LIMITED!!!

Early-Bird for Oakland

Same as above for SF, but bring $20 to help defray gym costs — that means Dream League is not making any money off your game.

To take advantage of this offer, just email rich(at)dreamleague(dot)org!

As Commish of Dream League, I know I can’t personally be there for every game of yours and give you a fist bump for a game well-played, but I honestly am truly grateful for your participation in Dream League. It’s great to see the old veterans come back time and again.

Every season, I try to come up with new ways to keep giving back and keep you interested in vying for another playoff run. Here’s what I’ve come up with — in terms of registrations — to make Dream League the best rec league experience available for the price:

Welcome back! As we head into the Summer of 2013, we hope you enjoyed our implementation of the NBA’s Defensive Three Second rule. This season, we’re expecting a new revamped stats system! It was supposed to happen last season, but our web gurus didn’t deliver on time. More on this later.

Here are the three divisions you can sign up for…

The Association… means your entire team is pretty serious about winning championships.

D-League… means most of your team is pretty serious about winning championships.

Non-Competitive… means your team values the experience/fun rather than winning.

Despite the new nomenclature, captains still were signing up in the wrong division for 2013 Winter-Spring in January. Everything evened out by the playoffs in April 2013 because there were so many teams assuming the wrong things. Here are the major take-aways:

Do not signup for Non-Competitive unless you truly will NEVER make a roster move that is competitive in nature. Some people really do just want to play the game for fun, in a protected environment. The moment you make a roster move to win a game, takes away from the collective goal of these players.

A lot of teams fall in the D-League category. We will divide up this division by pace. Therefore, like with all other attributes, signup with the accurate assessment of your team’s pace. One point guard can make a difference. If you have two fast guards or more, then you should *not* be saying your pace is Half-Court.

A lot of teams that signed up for D-League were really The Association teams. This means your roster from top to bottom has what you might say “prime-time players”. You have ballers who know what they are doing, be it talent, athleticism, skills, nerves of steel (being clutch). You know what I mean. Please do not signup for D-League unless you actually have some starters who are not such “prime time players” or are too old and way past that era.

From there, we will carve up each of the three divisions further as necessary, but you guys must be signed up in the right division to begin with. It helps everyone!

Welcome back! As we head into the New Year of 2013, we hope you enjoyed our implementation of the NBA’s Defensive Three Second rule. This season, we’re expecting a new revamped stats system! More on this later.

If you didn’t play last season, here are the three divisions you can sign up for…

The Association

D-League

Non-Competitive

We are still experiencing some sand-bagging in the NC division. All rosters will hereby be scrutinized, and they were and still will be transparent to all. Therefore, if you submit a roster, then you add a ringer, everyone will know about it. We plan to be a little more vigilant about the transparency this season. Again, the NON-COMPETITIVE division is so named for a reason. Do not make competitive roster moves in that division. Simple.

So let’s say you want to be competitive and have no choice but to sign up for D-League. Well, the theory goes, there will be tons of other teams like that in D-League and we will use the other attributes you tell us to separate out the teams further. Then when playoffs approach, you’ll be placed in the appropriate division.

Therefore, please register your team in the right division this season. Thank you.

Read last season’s intro below to get caught up…

2012 Fall: 27th Consecutive Season!

One the biggest problems teams have faced in the past is the captain fronting the entire cost of the franchise (aka team entry) fee, especially as the Recession continues its strong grip on everybody’s necks. We are pleased to announce that we’re going back to individual payments for the first time in four years. This helps us eliminate team installment fees and puts the onus on your players to pay on time each and every week, otherwise your team gets forfeited on the spot. It also stretches out the payment process, as your 7th and 8th roster slot payment deadlines are effectively during the playoffs, due to the regular season being six (6) games.

In short, once again all you need to start the season is have two (2) of eight (8) player slots paid for the week before your first tipoff. After that, player fees increase by $1.34 each week (the extra $0.34 covers PayPal transaction fees), so the longer your teammates wait to pay, the more it will cost them. However, they are responsible for paying the league, not you. ALL PAYMENTS WILL STILL BE MADE ONLINE AS WE WILL NOT BE COLLECTING CASH AT THE GYMS, except for referee and scorekeeper fees.

You heard that right: scorekeeper fees. We will also institute a $10 dollar/game cash fee for the scorekeepers. This relieves a great burden from the Commissioner’s office as far as cutting checks to each and every scorekeeper. This also reduces per-player and overall team upfront costs, and makes it easier for the players on your team that show up to pay the cash fees; for example, it’s easier to divide $35 among 7 players (five bucks each) if push comes to shove. However, usually you would rotate 1 of your 8 players to pay the full $35 cash.

Here is a summary of all the financial changes for this season, which is designed to help you manage your team much, much more easily…

Teams can now pay individually. The first 8 player slots are required.

Captains that want to pay for their entire team upfront can still do so. The only savings is in transaction fees.

7 days before your next game, you must have as many player slots paid up as games you will have played.

If you only have 6 or 7 players, 8 player slots must still be paid for.

Please check the Payment page for costs. It’s different for SF, OAK, and SJ. (UNDER CONSTRUCTION AS OF 8/15/2012)

If you have a 9th player, his fee is only $40 since he’s probably not playing as much as players 1 thru 8.

If you have a 10th player, his fee is only $25 since he’s probably not playing as much as Player #9.

If you have an 11th or 12th player, their fees are free since they are riding the bench. The max is 12.

We will keep track of all payments and player slots on a massive spreadsheet, viewable by all.

We are back to using PayPal, as Google Checkout’s program for nonprofits has ended.

We must, unfortunately, pass on the transaction fees. Remember, running leagues is a low-margin business.

Overall, players still pay about the same when all is said and done, but the pressure is now on the player (not the captain) to pay on time, otherwise the team may forfeit due to his delinquency. Also, the time to pay is stretched out.

That being said, we do not recommend picking up any players who are unable to front the cost of their roster slot, which can range between about $55-60 to be paid to the league. Don’t forget about the per-game cash fees too, as this is assuming you are rotating among the 8 players on your team the $25 cash/game to one of the two refs and the $10 cash/game to one of the two scorekeepers.

2012 Summer: 26th Consecutive Season!

Rolling right along, it’s our 26th consecutive season of Dream League, now spanning over ten years. Again, we’ll try to get more of our championship teams to come to our September Vegas Tournament for some showdowns against the winners of the Vegas Asian/Open League.

Oakland fees have to stay the same: $550. Nothing we can do about it at this point. We might run some promotions if you get your team in by the early deadline. This will require captains to stay on top of your players’ commitments and possibly front the full amount.

2012 Winter-Spring: 25th Consecutive Season!

Interestingly, as the Golden State Warriors celebrate their 50th season in the Bay Area, Dream League will celebrate its 25th season!

All I can say is, what a 2011 Fall that was. The Recession hit hard, we lost then got back the NFL, and we nearly lost the entire NBA season. It got really hard for us too, as we endured gym closures, or rate hikes at WKRC, while retaining only 4 teams in certain divisions, but we did turn over a new leaf in the process. It gave us the rare opportunity to pit the Oakland vs San Jose vs San Francisco teams. This is something we hope to continue.

But even better, in April we have the opportunity to send our Bay Area’s best to LA to go up against teams from the PacRim league. More info coming soon, as we continue discussions with our friends from PacRim, who we throw the annual LA Showcase tourney in April with.

This season, we have no choice but to raise some fees in Oakland from $520 to $550, but we will be grandfathering some teams in at the old $520 level if they get a non-refundable deposit — which can be transferred to an eventual team entry in the future — by 12/31/2011.

Also, we are putting extra effort into finally getting those career stats up.

But seriously, it *is* going to be a rather lonely Fall 2011, isn’t it? Without the NBA, that is. So hop onboard asap and don’t be left out in the cold. Dream League will be the closest thing you’ll get to the NBA for awhile!!!

2011 Spring-Summer: 23rd Consecutive Season!Using the exhaustive list of past seasons on the old site’s homepage at http://dreamleague.org, I recounted where we’re at and guess what, we are in our 23rd consecutive Sunday League season!

In honor of that, we are retiring jersey #23. No one in Dream League is allowed to wear that number. JUST KIDDING! :-)

Not much else to report this season except our ongoing incremental efforts to getting stats up quicker this season and having this site reflective of that. Easier said than done.

Keep a lookout for our other leagues, including weeknights and Saturdays (eventually will appear in menu bar up top).

Don’t forget to re-up and be placed in the drawing for returning teams (recap).

2011 Winter-Spring: The Oracle Experience!

The 2010 Winter-Spring season will be our 22nd consecutive season in the Bay Area, and closing out our 9th year!

OK, that’s it for now. Read up on our addition of stats last season below, or go back to the Sunday navigation page. We will also have a Saturday league again and details will be up soon.

2010 Fall: Saved By The Stats!

Welcome to our 21st consecutive season of Dream League, as we finish up our 9th year of existence. Even after all this time, improvements can be made. I’ve always wanted to bring back stats, and this season there are more reasons than ever to do it — from soup to nuts, as the saying goes.

One of the cool things we can start implementing is career stats. We still have all the scoresheets from a majority of our past seasons and Freddie and his cousin are now Jedi masters when it comes to punching them into the site. Seeing your entire career of stats with Dream League is not too far away.

But witness this past season, in fact, the last few weeks of 2010 Summer playoffs, sadly:

Players who would otherwise give themselves a bad name with unsportsmanlike conduct,

Not being able to track technical fouls accurately in light of automatic suspensions,

Players being added to teams during the playoffs when they hadn’t played a minimum number of regular season games,

Players sandbagging against competition far lower than where they ought to be playing, and

Opponents being questioned as to whether or not they were tall enough to play in a certain division.

Having stats means verifying on the scoresheet that you’re really that player, which means looking at IDs, which basically adds another layer of authenticity in Dream League. The list of positives could probably go on and on. Oh, and let’s not forget the beauty of having stats, period, aside from the functional benefits mentioned above.

HOWEVER… every new initiative has an associated cost. But I think I’ve found some ways to make the transition to a better standard not as painful to the wallet.

In short, all of the above can be achieved with a raise in per-team franchise fees of just $20.

We’re excited to announce that, due to some recent positive developments at our WKRC gym in Oakland, the first 24 “schedule-able” teams to sign up for OAKLAND get to rollback to our old prices, a 12.5% discount!

So instead of a $495 franchise fee, you pay $440 and…

Play all your games at WKRC (tipoffs 9a-8p — so 12 timeslots for 24 teams),

Agree to have certain refs ref your games,

Are one of the first 24 teams to signup,

Pay it all at once ($440) by PayPal (see below), and

Still bring $35 cash to each game for ref/scorekeeper.

All other teams will play at BCRC. Here’s the CALENDAR for 2015 Winter-Spring, which is our 34th consecutive season — Sdot, represent! (Shaun Livingston)

Questions? Hit me up! You all should have my phone number by now.

FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED!!!

To read more about the upcoming 2015 Winter-Spring season, click here.